Pakistan Says India Chokes River Flow as Tensions Rise

(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan alleged that India has almost entirely stopped the flow of water across the border through the Chenab river as fears of a clash between the two neighbors mount following a deadly attack in Kashmir.

Since Sunday morning, the water flow has been throttled by almost 90% of the usual volume that passes to Pakistan, according to Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, spokesman for Pakistan’s Indus River System Authority. The nation had anticipated water supplies to farms would be short by a fifth for the next two months even before this curtailment, he said.

“It’s unprecedented,” Rana said, adding that India typically holds some water daily for electricity generation but releases it every few hours. 

The alleged choking of the river follows India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, a bilateral pact more than six decades old, in retaliation for the killing of 26 people in the disputed region of Kashmir last month. The deal gives New Delhi control of the Indus basin’s three eastern rivers, while downstream Islamabad controls the three western ones.

Harvests of some crops in Pakistan, like wheat and barley, are already well underway. However, the nation’s cotton crop is concentrated in Punjab and in a key stage of development, making water availability vital. The main rice crop is also just being sown ahead of the start of the annual monsoon. Almost all key rice regions in the state are irrigated with water that stems from the Chenab River, Rana said.

After suspending the treaty, India started work on flushing silt at two of its dams in the Kashmir valley, Reuters reported on Monday. 

The reservoirs will have to be refilled after the flushing is completed and that may reduce downstream flow into Pakistan, according to Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the New Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, which studies the social and environmental impact of water-related projects. The now-suspended treaty allows flushing only during the monsoon season, he said.

“On the whole, there will be no reduction in water flow,” Thakkar said. “It is temporary. Whatever comes in, flows out. Only the flow pattern may change.” 

Rana also said water could be released later as India doesn’t have capacity to store it permanently.

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(Updates to add map and information on rice in fifth paragraph. An earlier version corrected the second paragraph to state the forecast does not include the water stopped by India.)

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